WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has repeatedly found himself in the unenviable position of comforting grieving families after tragedies since taking office.
But as he stood before the television cameras at the White House on Sunday, the comforter in chief found himself offering comfort to its most unlikely victim: Donald Trump.
Trump, Biden’s predecessor and Republican opponent in this year’s presidential election, was shot and wounded at a political rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday afternoon in what the FBI said was being investigated as an assassination attempt.
Biden told reporters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Sunday that he had spoken with Trump and was “very grateful that he is in good health and recovering.”
Biden said he and First Lady Jill Biden were praying for Trump and his family, and urged Americans to “come together as one country and show who we are.”
The attack on President Trump by a gunman using an AR-15 rifle has plunged an already tumultuous and unexpected presidential race into further chaos just four months before the election.
Biden was already trailing in polls in most of the battleground states that will decide the election, and now he faces an opponent who is positioned to enthuse his base in the wake of the shooting.
“Republican voters are going to be energized,” former Trump adviser David Urban said in an interview with CNN. “Republicans are going to show up to vote. No Republican is going to stay home this election. They’re going to show up to vote for a candidate who, after being shot, stood up, raised his hand defiantly, and said, ‘Follow me, follow me.'”
He added: “And I think it will forever change the way Democrats talk about the future of Donald Trump.”
Shocking events:This election was already shattering convention. Then came the shooting at a Trump rally.
Biden, who was already fighting back against growing calls to drop out of the race after his disastrous debate defeat against Trump last month, now faces a new test: showing he can lead the country through a volatile period of political violence while reassuring Democrats he can beat Trump in November.
A recurring theme of Biden’s campaign is that Trump is a threat to democracy who wants to become a dictator from Day 1 in office. Biden has also drawn attention to Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters and Trump’s stated intentions for a possible second term in office.
Biden and Democrats now find themselves in the precarious position of making their case against Trump while facing urging from lawmakers on both sides to ease tensions in the race.
Addressing the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday night, Biden stressed he would continue to make his case but said competing electoral visions should be expressed peacefully, not violently.
“I will continue to speak out for our democracy, defend our Constitution and call for action at the ballot box. Violence in the streets will not be tolerated,” he said. “That’s how a democracy should work: we debate and we disagree.”
Trump was minutes into speaking at a rally in Bethel, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, when gunfire erupted on Saturday afternoon. Trump stood and raised his clenched fist as blood oozed from his right ear and ran down his cheek. Secret Service quickly removed Trump from the stage. Trump was treated by a doctor and returned to his home in Bedminster, New Jersey, late Saturday night.
Biden, who was at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, when the shooting occurred, cut short his travel plans and rushed back to the White House late Saturday night. He spoke about the shooting three times — once before leaving Rehoboth on Saturday and twice from the White House on Sunday, including a prime-time address to the nation from the Oval Office.
The Biden campaign said it would pull its television ads as soon as possible. Mr. Biden postponed a trip to Austin, Texas, on Monday to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. Vice President Kamala Harris also postponed a trip this week to Palm Beach County, Florida, to meet with Republican women voters.
Additionally, the Democratic House Campaign Committee plans to suspend fundraising and advertising, according to a source familiar with the plans.
The shooting of Trump was the most serious attack on a sitting or former president since President Ronald Reagan was wounded by an assassin in 1981. After the shooting, Reagan’s approval rating rose eight points to 68% in a Gallup poll, but by the end of the year it had fallen to 49%.
But President Reagan was shot just over two months into his presidency, and the attack on Trump came just four months before the election, raising questions about how it will affect the race.
David Hopkins, a professor at Boston University who specializes in presidential elections and political polarization, said it was difficult to predict what impact the shooting would have because there was no precedent for something like this in U.S. history.
“I believe its importance is not so much in influencing the outcome of the vote in November, but rather in deepening the feeling among Trump and his supporters that they are literally under attack from a hostile Democratic opposition and the liberal establishment,” he said.
Hopkins said the impact of the case will depend in part on whether it is proven that the shooter, identified by the FBI as Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel, Pennsylvania, was politically motivated or suffered from a mental illness.
Several Republican lawmakers have condemned Biden’s comments about placing blame for the shooting, but Pennsylvania county voter records show Crooks is registered as a Republican.
What happens next for the Biden and Trump campaigns remained unclear as of Sunday.
Republicans are arriving in Milwaukee this weekend for their national political convention, which kicks off on Monday. The Trump campaign said the convention will go ahead as scheduled. Trump is scheduled to formally accept the GOP nomination on Thursday.
“This convention is going to be epic,” Reince Priebus, Trump’s former White House chief of staff and Republican National Convention chairman, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
Priebus, who spoke with Trump by phone, said the former president was “ready to go,” adding that “the steadfastness that he’s bringing to Milwaukee now is going to energize this crowd even more.”
What went wrong?How did the Secret Service allow a shooter to get so close to President Trump?
David Gergen, a longtime former adviser to several presidents, including Reagan at the time of the assassination attempt, said Trump has a chance to build a wave of support if he tries to unite the country.
“He has an opportunity to do something he hasn’t been able to do in any previous campaigns, and that’s bring us all together,” Gergen said in an interview with CNN.
Gergen said the surge in public support Reagan received after the assassination attempt “made him one of the most successful presidents of his kind.”
“Past examples show that if Trump were to say right now, ‘Folks, we need to work together to make a change,’ it would create a wave of support and sympathy in the country,” Gergen said. “A lot of conservatives would go along with that. A lot of conservatives would rally around that.”
David Axelrod, a top adviser to former President Barack Obama, said Biden’s prime-time Oval Office address was intended to demonstrate his leadership both as president and in the campaign against Trump.
“I think it’s the right thing for the president to do,” Axelrod said, “but politically, I think he wants to have some of the leadership in this moment.”
Axelrod questioned whether Trump, who has campaigned for years on divisive rhetoric, would be able to tone it down as he called for unity.
“This is a big departure from what the Trump campaign has been like over the last few years,” Axelrod told CNN. “It’s an opportunity for Trump to expand. The question is, can he seize it?”
Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, said the shooting should cause Americans to pause and reflect on the country’s political temperament.
“We need to tone down the rhetoric and tone,” Coons said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I urge you today to turn off your cell phones, get off social media, take time with your families and really reflect on who we are as a nation and who we want to be.”
Contributors: Rebecca Morin and David Jackson
Michael Collins and Joey Garrison cover the White House. Follow Collins at @mcollinsNEWS and Garrison at @joeygarrison.